Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is cloud-based team collaboration software that is part of the Office 365 suite of applications. The core capabilities in Microsoft Teams include business messaging, calling, video meetings and file sharing. Businesses of all sizes can use Teams.

Content Continues Below

Download this free guide

Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Cloud Phone System

As cloud computing strategies continue to evolve, Internet telephony is quickly becoming the preferred choice for business communication systems. If your organization is unsure about making the transition, here are the top 10 reasons why a cloud phone system could be the right move.

I agree to TechTarget’s Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and the transfer of my information to the United States for processing to provide me with relevant information as described in our Privacy Policy.

Please check the box if you want to proceed.

I agree to my information being processed by TechTarget and its Partners to contact me via phone, email, or other means regarding information relevant to my professional interests. I may unsubscribe at any time.

Please check the box if you want to proceed.

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

As a business communications app, Teams enables local and remote workers to collaborate on content in real time and near-real time across different devices, including laptops and mobile devices.

Microsoft Teams is the vendor's core cloud-based unified communications offering, and it competes with similar products, like Slack, Cisco Webex Teams and Google Hangouts. Microsoft Teams integrates with other Office 365 applications, including Exchange, PowerPoint and SharePoint.

Microsoft Teams launched in March 2017. In September 2017, Microsoft announced Teams would replace Skype for Business Online in Office 365. Microsoft has been rolling Skype for Business Online features into Teams over the past several months, including messaging, meetings and calling capabilities. New features are added to Teams frequently.

Microsoft Teams core capabilities

At its core, Teams is a chat-based workspace that features group and private messaging, with threaded and persistent conversations. Within each team, users can create different channels to organize their communications by topic. Each channel can include a couple of users or scale to thousands of users.

In this video, check out the core capabilities of the Microsoft Teams app.

Within a team-based messaging thread, users can schedule voice and video meetings -- a workflow that provides contextual communications. Users can also edit PowerPoint files within the Teams app. Like other messaging services, Teams messages can also incorporate emojis and GIFs.

The guest-access feature in Microsoft Teams allows users to invite people outside their organizations to join internal channels for messaging, meetings and file sharing. This capability helps to facilitate business-to-business project management.

With the Teams app, users can make voice over IP calls from Teams client to Teams client. With Microsoft's Office 365 Phone System, formerly known as Cloud PBX, and Calling Plan, formerly known as PSTN Calling, users can make, receive and transfer calls to and from landlines and mobile phones on the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Microsoft is also introducing direct routing, which lets customers connect an existing PBX or Session Initiation Protocol trunk to Teams. Other Teams calling features include voicemail, E911 support, speed dial and several other capabilities. The final calling features, which include enterprise-grade capabilities, are expected to roll into Teams by the end of 2018.

Microsoft Teams users will be able to blur their backgrounds during video calls.

Microsoft Teams integrations

While Teams video calls are possible through desktops and laptops, Microsoft has expanded its partnerships with video conferencing hardware vendors for room-based video meetings. In a video meeting, users can share live video from their mobile phones and project it into the meeting. Microsoft is also expected to integrate Teams into its Surface Hub 2, a digital whiteboard and meeting room display slated for release in 2019.

In addition to hardware integrations, Microsoft has also increased its software integrations. In January 2018, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Teams app store, in which users can search for third-party apps and use them in Microsoft Teams to augment their workflows. Some of the apps in the store include Asana, Trello and Zendesk. Teams competitor Slack largely popularized this type of app integration.

The Microsoft Teams App Studio, launched in beta in January 2018, enables developers and businesses to build apps using the design language of Teams.

Microsoft Teams is available in several Office 365 plans, including business, education, enterprise and nonprofit packages. Teams has no free tier and does not offer stand-alone pricing. Several competitors, including Slack and Atlassian Stride, offer freemium options. Microsoft Teams works on Android, iOS, Mac and Windows systems and devices. It also works in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge web browsers.

Join the conversation

4 comments

Register

I agree to TechTarget’s Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and the transfer of my information to the United States for processing to provide me with relevant information as described in our Privacy Policy.

Please check the box if you want to proceed.

I agree to my information being processed by TechTarget and its Partners to contact me via phone, email, or other means regarding information relevant to my professional interests. I may unsubscribe at any time.

Your password has been sent to:

Please create a username to comment.

Well - my parents started a construction project on their home. So I setup a Microsoft Teams channel to collaborate with all the people involved in this project: builders, the general contractor, architect, and my father. Intent is to more efficiently collaborate by just having one channel where everyone can text each other. Additionally we can share invoice PDF files and excel spreadsheet showing timelines.